


Photogenic Hearts

by livennadin, Translucent_Ant



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and - Fandom
Genre: ADORABLE GAYS, Angst, Cameras, Coming Out, F/M, M/M, Slow Burn, collage AU, he has such long legs, keith and lance, klance, serious angst, so slow, struggles, super gay, they’re so cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 17:32:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12916800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livennadin/pseuds/livennadin, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Translucent_Ant/pseuds/Translucent_Ant
Summary: Keith and Lance take the same photography program. Lance sucks at landscapes. Keith sucks at portraits. They make a deal to help each other pass this semester





	Photogenic Hearts

Chapter one  
“Click, beep, snap.”

When Keith was 5 years old, his mother went away.  
At the funeral there was a big picture of her, her hair blowing in the wind, soft yellow light illuminating her face, it was so beautiful. Keith hated it. He felt like it was lying to him. His mother was gone. She left him, yet there she was, smiling. He remembered running away, down the stone path to a small patch of trees. His father didn’t come after him. He never did. 

When Keith was 8 years old, his father went away.  
He came downstairs one morning to an empty house. He didn’t tell anyone, he didn’t have anyone to tell. He stayed alone for days and days. He explored parts of the house he was never allowed in, like his father’s office. Where he found an old, worn, cardboard box with a Pentax vintage camera. Inside the box was a small photograph of his mother. Her hair blowing in the wind, soft yellow light illuminating her face, beautiful.  
He crumpled it into a ball. 

7 days later a UPS man came to the door to deliver a package and Keith was discovered.  
After that it was foster home after foster home. When he turned 15, he lost all hope. Kids never got adopted after this age. Besides, he didn’t even know if he wanted to be adopted.  
But right when all seemed lost, Caroline, Davis and Shiro walked into his life. This home finally worked. This home finally felt right. He still felt a little uneasy, but Shiro had been through a similar situation and made him feel a lot better.  
And now here he was, his second week of college. Majoring in photography. He lived in the dorms relatively close to Shiro and worked at a local print shop. Things seemed to be kinda alright.

 

November 21st 2017.

“Really Keith? Another long exposure?” His professor said, leaning against his desk. She blew her silver hair out of her eye and sighed, “I already have enough long exposures and landscapes from you, what I need is some portraits. You took some yesterday during the workshop right? Why aren’t you working on those?”  
Keith groaned inwardly. He didn’t want to show Allura his shitty portraits, he hated them. Beside he only got the chance to take two before that Cuban boy stole the show and took his spot. Not that he minded, he really hated the workshop. It was all very awkward and cramped.

“I uh, didn’t actually get any” he lied “my camera wasn’t cooperating and I couldn’t instruct my model over noise. Besides another student stole her away from me for a duo shoot” he talked without moving his eyes from his motor, his hand left hand was working his stylus and his right was controlling keyboard shortcuts as he worked.

“Keith I’m going to need 12 in 3 weeks time, do you understand? Each corresponding with the themes I’ve given you. You should have started this already” she said, her British accent thick.

“Get to work” she walked off and Keith sighed, gazing up at the clock.

‘4:15…I can close my eyes for a second’ he thought. Saving his draft and logging off. He sat back in his chair, exasperated and stared up at the off-white ceiling. 

Keith really liked this school, he may complain to Shiro occasionally about his fellow students, but the school was great. He had unlimited access to all the equipment, software and studios. Not that he used the studios much. The tripods and wide-angle lenses though, that was a different story. He had them out almost every week for his weekend hikes. They had a ton of professional workshops, and they all got free 24/7 tech support. He had Caroline and Davis to thank for that, they helped both him and Shiro get into the schools they wanted. Shiro’s being a police foundation course a couple blocks away. He still got to see him often, and every couple of weeks he and Keith would head down to visit their parents. It was a 4-hour drive but they always had a good time. 

‘I’ll see them again in 4 weeks’ he told himself, quieting his thoughts and falling asleep completely.

 

About 2 hours later Keith woke up, he looked at the clock and sighed, two hours wasted. He stretched, cracking his back and then his knuckles.

‘Time to make up for it’. They were often allowed to stay late, the janitors didn’t leave until 11 so the school didn’t closed until 11:30 or so. He logged back into his computer and pulled up his draft in lightroom. Selecting the brush tool, he set to work adding some burn to his photo.

“Hey that’s not bad” a voice said, almost right beside his ear. Keith practically leaped out of his chair,  
“fuck!” He cursed, throwing his stylus at the unknown person in fright. 

“Ow! What the hell!” The guy exclaimed, rubbing his head. Keith slowed his heart and raised his eyebrow at the boy. The annoying Cuban boy. Larry? The one who stole his model. 

“Sorry.” Keith grumbled, in a completely unapologetic tone. “I didn’t see you there” 

“Yeah no kidding. I’m Lance, by the way.” He said. Lance? He could have sworn it was Larry. All well. He watched as Lance bent down and picked up his stylus, he set in down on his desk and gestured to his monitor again. “I meant what I said, that’s petty good.”

Keith composed himself from his previous fright and sat back down in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Um, thanks?” He replied. He didn’t trust this guy, he wanted something and whatever it was, Keith didn’t care to help. He had actual work to do.  
‘Unlike some’ he thought. 

“So, listen,” the boy continued. “I see you are very good at night shots. And I also may have seen a couple of your other landscapes on the school page. And I was just wonderin’, if maybe, you could consider helping me out a bit? All mine look…dumb. And I gotta submit them in 3 weeks.”

Keith was slightly taken aback, he actually asked nicely. Maybe Lance wasn’t the jerk he thought he was. Maybe he had a reason for stealing his model, mayb- “and besides, you’d get some quality time with handsome me, huh? Isn’t that a reward enough?” Yeah no, he was jerk.

“Hard pass” Keith said, focusing his attention back on his work “I don’t have time. I have to get 12 portraits in before the deadline and I haven’t even started. Find someone else” 

“You haven’t started the portraits?” Lance asked, sitting in the chair beside Keith’s. Keith hoped that maybe if he didn’t make eye contact, he’d go away.

“No.” He admitted, gripping his stylus tightly “in case you’d forgotten, you stole my model yesterday.” 

“Oh, she was yours? I didn’t even notice. She sort of sauntered over to me on her own, I have that effect on people.” Lance chuckled, throwing one arm over the back of his chair and pushing his hair back with his other. 

Keith sighed, he didn’t want to deal with this right now. He mentally prepped himself for Lance to mock his laziness with the portraits. Not that lance could talk, considering he had apparently gotten no where with his landscapes. But, sounding like a hypocrite never seemed to slow Lance down.

“What if I help you with your portraits? I’ll give you some tips, teach you how to talk to models, the best angles, whatever you need. In return, you help me. If it all goes well, we’ll both pass this semester with flying colours.” 

It did seem like a solid deal, everyday was another day closer to the deadline and Keith wasn’t getting anywhere on his own, and he didn’t want to submit something to Allura that he wasn’t proud of. The offer would be perfect…if the person on the other end of the desk wasn’t this jack ass.

Keith exhaled loudly and set his pen down, “How do I know you’ll follow through? How do I know you won’t just bail on me when it’s your turn to help me out?” He pushed back in his chair a little and crossed his arms over his chest. “In none of our conversations have you proven yourself someone to trust. I mean, you’re always late to class, you interrupt, your damn phone is never on silent and all you ever do is joke around.” 

“I didn’t know you paid such close attention to me, are you stalking me Keith?” Lance teased, leaning his head closer. Keith felt his face do a weird thing that he couldn’t explain, and Lance laughed, leaning back into his chair. “I’m kidding, get used to it. Look I’ll help you out first so that you’ll trust me, from there we’ll take turns. Okay?” 

Keith rubbed his top and bottom canines together in thought, (a bad habit really, Shiro would always scold him for it) if it didn’t work out, if Lance wasn’t really teaching him anything good, he could stop. He didn’t really have anything to lose, right? 

“Okay” he said, feeling like a small weight was lifted off his shoulders. 

“Deal?” Lance stuck his hand out and Keith glanced down at it, he had a couple rubber bracelets on and his thumb was painted with mint nail polish. 

“Deal.” Keith grabbed Lances hand in his and shook it firmly, slightly surprised at how pleasantly soft it was. He felt his face do that weird thing again and he quickly pulled his hand away. “So, when should we start? I work weekends 9-6 so that won’t work.” 

“Why not now? We got a couple hours and I have nothing better to do. Besides, this way we get the studio to ourselves.” Lance said, standing up and doing eccentric stretch. His shirt rode up a bit when he did and Keith got a small glimpse of the warm skin underneath. He quickly looked away. 

“What? Now?” He started, “We don’t have a model or anything, wouldn’t be sort of pointless?”He pulled his chair back up to his desk and resumed his editing. 

“Yes now, everyday is a day wasted right?” Lance leaned forward and pressed the power button on Keith’s monitor. Keith felt his mouth dropped open slightly, that bitch. “I’ll be your model and instruct you, it’s easy peasy when you have my skills.” 

Keith sighed and pinched the space between his eyebrows. “Okay, Yeah, fine.” He said, pushing his chair back and getting up. “Where do we start?” 

Lance reached down and grabbed a hold of Keith’s sleeve, pulling him forward and towards the photo studio. Keith glanced down at his hand and felt his face heat up again. In 10 minuets Lance had already made more contact with him then half the other people he knows. He got the feeling Lance was a very touchy person. 

“First, Mr. Grumpypants, I’ll show you how you should speak to your model. You won’t get the photo you want if you don’t communicate! Then we’ll work on lighting, then adding emotions-“ he dropped Keith’s shirt and strutted over to the large gray backdrop, he perched himself on a black stool and gave Keith a look that made him appear slightly pained, or like he was sitting in a cold puddle. “-and finally, nude photography” he said with a wink.

“I um, what? Nude photography is a little…I mean-“ Keith’s face heated up again. He thought of that glimpse of Lance’s skin he got earlier. “And whats your face doing? Are you okay?” 

Lance’s face deflated and sighed “it’s my smoulder! Obviously. Have you not seen tangled? Mine is a million times better though, you have to admit.” 

Keith was only half listening. Nude photography? He was like, 78% sure that was not on the recommended studies list. It couldn’t be, right?

‘I mean, there’s no way allura would have a workshop for that’ he thought ‘She seems too up tight. But the art students had nude models so I guess it wouldn’t be too unusua-‘ his thoughts were interrupted by lance laughing. He looked up to see Lance staring at him in fascination. 

“Relax, I was kidding about the nude photography. I told you to get used to my jokes”

Oh, right. Of course he was kidding. He should have known that.  
Keith walked over to his bag that was sat against the wall and pulled out his camera, he adjusted the settings nervously before walking back over to Lance. God this was so awkward 

“Now, what kind of shot are you going for?” Lance inquired, propping his foot up on the stool and leaning on his knee. 

‘His legs are abnormally long’ Keith thought. 

“Um, a good one? I don’t know. I’m just taking your photo, I don’t really have anything in mind” 

“You have to have some idea. Think of the portraits you’ve seen, start by trying to copy one of those. A lot of it is in the pose but you can always add more in editing.”  
Lance was actually being a pretty okay teacher. His tone was helpful, not mocking and he seemed really interested in helping Keith. 

Keith briefly looked through his camera before setting it down again. He couldn’t do this, as good as lance was. He was an awkward mess, he had no idea what he was doing. If he couldn’t even get a good portrait, did he really belong here?

“I don’t know what I’m doing.” He admitted, fiddling with the camera strap around his neck. “I thought I’d just, y’know, snap your photo. I didn’t know I was supposed to have anything in mind. I don’t exactly spend my time looking at portraits.” 

“Alright.” Lance said calmly. “Just take my picture then. We’ll do that for now, build up your confidence” 

Kieth sighed and pulled his camera back up, he didn’t like this. It felt so fake, the view through the camera made Lance look somehow…wrong. 

“C’mon pretty boy what’s taking so long? My face is getting sorrre~” Lance wined, tapping his fingers on the stool. 

“Oh, so you think I’m pretty? I knew it” Keith mused, smiling a little under his camera. He watched as Lance’s face darkened a bit, he looked mildly panicked before breaking into a throaty laugh. He threw his head back when he did and Keith felt something strange in his chest. He hesitated for a moment before pressing the shutter down and taking the picture. 

He lowered the camera and pressed the playback button to look at what he got. When he did, he felt a wave of pride flood through him. This was a good photo. The lightning was perfect, his pose was natural, and the composition was on point. He took a good photo. The longer he stared, the more a feeling of nostalgia wash over him.  
This photo was completely and utterly real, almost bitterly so. It showed Lance the way he truly was, not the way he wanted another people to see him. The light that pooled behind him and highlighted his hair to a soft chestnut…his laugh. It was uncanny. This feeling, it was the same one he had when he looked at his mother portrait. But this wasn’t a lie, because Lance really was here, Lance really was laughing and shinning so damn bright. He felt sort of…whole. This was incredible. And he needed more.

He needed more pictures of Lance. 

“Uh, you okay?” Lances voice broke him from his thoughts and he looked up, slightly dazed. “Did you take a photo?” Keith swallowed hard and cleared his those slightly 

“Yeah, it actually looks pretty good.” He replied 

“Really? I knew it! My next suggestion was going to be natural portraits! In the moment y’know? I figured you’d be good at that.” Lance boasted, his voice full of confidence.. “Can I see?” 

“I uh, not yet. When I’m done editing” Keith spluttered. He quickly shut off his camera. He didn’t want to risk Lance not liking the image and making him delete it. “I have one good picture to tie me over and it’s getting late. Maybe we should continue this another time?” He gently put his camera back into his bag and hoisted it onto his shoulder. 

“W-wait!” Lance hesitated, getting up from his stool, “Could we take a look at some of my landscapes and close ups? Just to get your advice? I mean I’m sure that even though I’m struggling, you’ll be impressed.” He challenged. 

Keith was a little confused. It was like there were always two sides of Lance that were both fighting to be seen. One was a very self-assured asshole who seemed to like flirting with anything that moved, and showing off to people. And the other was a much smaller personality, one that knew his flaws and sought to fix them. One who had a deep, throaty laugh that could fill the whole room, one that was helpful and honest. Keith didn’t understand why the hell the former ‘Lance’ even existed. He might even like Lance if he was actually being himself. Maybe.

Keith set his bag back down and sat against the studio wall, reaching over and shutting one of the bright lights off, “sure, but keep in mind, it’s 11:23 so we’ll get kicked out any minute” he warned. 

Lance ran over to his bag and came back with his Mac, he sat a small distance away from Keith and opened it up, typing in his password. “Thanks,” he said “it’ll be worth your while though, trust me.” 

Again? He was getting tired of this really quickly. Maybe this partnership was a bad idea. He was starting to find Lance more and more annoying by the second. If he would just stop being all fake already. 

He watched through pursed lips as lance opened up his gallery. It took a while to load and Keith felt his eyes drifting down to Lance’s hands. They were hovering over the keyboard slightly and seemed to be trembling a little. Was he actually nervous about showing Keith his stuff? He was about to look back at the screen when he noticed that mint green thumb again. Should he ask? He was sorta curious bu-

“So here’s the first one” Lance’s voice interrupted. Keith snapped his attention back to his screen and studied the image before him. It was nice, no doubt about it. The mountains at sunrise, slight fog surrounding their base. It was good, but it wasn’t exactly…special. It had that stock-photo feel.

“It’s nice,” Keith started, “but you need to increase the sharpness in your mountains. They’re lacking that pop. And sunrises and sunsets are overrated, they always look good. You should try for something else.” 

Lance turned to face him and gave him a look that had ‘Bitch??’ Written all over it. Keith fought a smile and rolled his eyes “you want my advice? You got it.” He stated. “What’s next?” 

Lance made some sort of displeased grunt and focused back on his laptop. He clicked the next image and Keith almost snorted out loud. 

“Lance” he said, calmly. “Is that, by any chance, a still life of a fucking battery?” 

“It’s original” Lance whined, zooming in on the photo. “Look at those interesting colours!” 

Keith looked closely at the battery, and then back at Lance, and then at the battery, and then back at Lance. 

“Oh my god” he said, doing all he could to hold back his laugh. “It’s. It’s you.”

Lance looked at him, obviously confused before he gazed down at his outfit to see a perfect match. Lance was the first to break, laughter bellowing through him and shaking the laptop onto the floor. Then Keith snapped and he felt uncontrollable snorts and giggles make their way to the surface. 

“Oh my god Keith, I didn’t think you were such a meme!” Lance laughed, holding his side slightly and tilting his head back. Keith watched and quieted his laugh slightly. He was doing it again, being himself.  
The kind of trueness that made Keith want to take that photo in the first place. He was reminded again, of that feeling. That feeling of fullness and satisfaction that came from capturing something so…real. The feeling that for some, strange, strange reason, made him feel closer to his mom.

His thoughts and Lance’s laugh were interrupted by Keith’s ringing phone. He picked it up out of his pocket and groaned a little when he saw an annoyingly perfect face looking back at him.

“Who’s that guy?” Lance asked, looking over Keith’s shoulder. “Mysterious brother I’ve heard about?” 

“Ex” he replied, shutting his phone off. “An asshole called Garrett.” He tossed his phone into his bag beside him and sighed.

He moved to face Lance when he didn’t get anything as a reply. When he looked at him he seemed to be in some sort of internal battle. 

“You’re gay?” He uttered, fidgeting with some of his rubber bracelets. The air around them seemed… tight almost and Keith wondered if this is where the expression “you could cut the air with a knife” came from. 

“Yeah,” he replied simply. He actually thought it was sort of obvious at this point. Keith’s sexuality was never really a big deal to him. He actually never really thought about it. Dating girls was never an option to him and when he found out he could date guys he was mostly just relieved he had some sort of option that wasn’t loneliness. 

Lance gaze a simple nod in reply and turned his gaze to the far window. 

‘Weird’ Keith thought. He was oddly sensitive on the subject.

“Hey kids!” A voice barked from outside. Both Keith and Lance immediately sat up and froze. “Get outta here, it’s late and I’m lockin’ up!” 

They heard angry footsteps stomp away down the hall and they both let out a breath Keith didn’t know he was holding. 

Lance shut his laptop and they both scurried to their feet. The tension seemed to have really been cut with a knife just as Keith thought because most of the previous awkwardness had vanished. He felt relieved it wouldn’t be weird parting as he packed his things. Keith grabbed his camera back and hefted it back over his shoulder with a sigh. 

“So um,” Lance appeared beside him. “Can I give you my number? So we can meet for my turn? Y’know, the Landscapes? And then hopefully I can actually give you a better lesson” he said, genuinely. He seemed to catch himself pretty quick because he tried to cover it up with, “I mean, god knows you need it” 

Keith rolled his eyes and took his phone back out, copying down Lance’s number. He was so hard to read it almost gave him a headache. At this point he was still wondering if Lance was just pretending to be occasionally nice in order to get his help. He hoped he wasn’t. 

He zipped his thick leather jacket up and pulled on a simple ear-flap hat his adoptive mother made him. It was a little bit big but it did the job of keeping him warm.

He stuck his hands into his pockets and made way for the door, Lance trailing behind. Was he behind? Why was he hurrying? Was he..?

‘He’s trying to beat me to the door!’ he thought to himself. Why was this a competition? It was just a door. This was stupid. So stupid. So why were his feet moving faster? 

Suddenly Lance switched into a dead on bolt to the door and Keith followed right after, running as fast as his winter boots would let him, air rushing into his lungs, the flaps of his hat blowing behind him, he couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit. 

It was Lance that reached the door first. He shoved it open with a dramatic ‘BANG’ and gave Keith a cocky smirk. 

“hasta la later, Keith,” he said, winking and doing some kind of weird salute.

Keith watched as lance ran down the stairwell, taking them two at a time, his face felt flushed but he was sure it was from the run. Lance…he wasn’t too bad. Maybe if Keith could make him be himself more…yeah, that would be nice. If Lance would just relax, he was sure he’d have a million photo worthy opportunities. Keith wanted that more then anything. He was already forgetting that sparkly, warm feeling he had. He needed to feel it again. 

He had to.

That night, Keith was more tired than ever. He was exhausted from talking and laughing with Lance, from actually contributing to a conversation. It’s not that Keith had never had friends before, it was just that he never felt comfortable enough to really say much. But he felt comfortable with Lance, in a weird, yet endearing, way. 

That didn’t mean Lance still wasn’t pushing all of his buttons down successfully when he wanted to. He sometimes still turned into that loud, overly confident boy that acts like he had to challenge the whole world to one up him, just to prove that the world simply can not.

But other than that, Lance was the human embodiment of warmth and friendliness.

“No picture can replace watching someone laugh freely, without anything holding them back.” Lance had said that day. Biting his lip, Keith dug in his backpack to get his camera out. He pressed the button to review the last picture he took. It was Lance, laughing with all his walls down, only living in the moment . It felt strange for Keith to remember his long gone mother’s picture by looking at Lance’s, since she existed only in that moment the picture was taken. She was.. a lie. He tried not to but he still had a lot of negative feelings towards that picture. He’d learnt more as he grew, his mother wasn’t actually taunting him or anything. She simply was, gone.

But Lance existed out of the picture Keith took and for some reason Keith found himself wishing that Lance existed in more aspects of his life.  
His eyes roamed the laughing golden skinned boy on the screen. Wait, Keith zoomed in. Lance had freckles? He’ve never noticed it before. He started looking at the picture more carefully now, unconsciously burning every detail into his brain. His hair looked soft. Would it be soft to touch too? Keith groaned as he set his camera aside. Not now, gayness. I have to sleep. Besides, he didn’t know Lance at all. He wasn’t going to stick around much anyways. Everyone left eventually.

Somewhere along his endless thinking of how he’s going to get all the portraits done, he fell asleep.

He was late to work next morning.

 

 

Keith tapped his his pen slightly angrily against the shop counter. He didn’t want to be here. He was tired, and he had things to do. He wanted to get his hands on Lance’s portrait, he was already imagining touching it up in his mind. He groaned out loud and gently banged his head into the hard wood of the counter. The soft, elevator like music that ran through the place was driving him insane. On top of that, they never had customers, the old man who ran the run-down printshop was awful at advertising. 

He jumped slightly when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Somewhat suspicious but mostly grateful, Keith swung his phone out of his pocket. There was a text from Lance.

_“you free today? pls say yea_ :)”

Keith’s eyebrows automatically furrowed.

“ _no. i’m working._ ” He typed and sent. What could Lance possibly want? They were together just yesterday. When no replies came from Lance, Keith returned back to resting his head on the counter. Would it be too painful to sleep here? He thought as he slowly drifted away.

 

“Hey,” a voice sliced through his not so comfortable nap. Keith spun his head up fast and hit something _hard._

“Ow!” Lance cried out as he held his cheek where the top of Keith’s head collided.  
“You gotta stop hurting me every time we meet!” 

Keith glared at him. “You gotta stop scaring me!” He yelped. Lance smiled, finally letting go of his cheek. There was a faint bruise forming. He leaned on the counter with one arm and chuckled as his free hand dug into the pocket of his coat. 

“What?” Keith questioned,crossing his arms over his chest.

“Apparently,” Lance started as he picked up a tissue from his pocket and held it out for Keith. “You drool when you sleep.”

Keith felt his face heat up a little and he snatched the tissue from Lance’s hand, quickly wiping his mouth. “How’d you even know where I worked?” He grumbled, rubbing sleep from his eyes. 

“Shiro told me” he replied with a smile, turning around and leaning his elbows against the counter, he was studying the place closely “kinda small in here” he noted. 

“I-what? Shiro? How do you know Shiro?” Keith demanded, sitting up now. His was too tired to comprehend all of this. 

“He added me on Facebook last night” Lance said nonchalantly.

‘That’s just like Shiro’ Keith thought, ‘did he invite him over for Christmas while he was at it?’ He was suddenly thinking his wish over from last night. Lance didn’t need to exist in all aspects of his life, just some of them, and work wasn’t one.

“Of course he did.” Keith sighed, plunking himself back down in his chair “did you guys play FarmVille all night and share your deepest secrets?” He teased, laying his head back on the counter and looking up at Lance. This was a really good angel on him. He mentally noted the exact position for future photos. 

“Okay, 1,” Lance started, turning around in a dramatic flourish and pointing his finger at Keith. “My farm is _incredible,_ My crops are _thriving_ and I’m making _millions._ ” “And two- you’re right. We did. He told me you had a thing for 70’s guys and that’s why you have a mullet.” Lance finished, a large grin on his face. 

Keith laughed softly “he did not say that” 

Lance pursed his lips together, smiling. “Maybe he did, maybe he did not.” He turned his neck all the way to look at Keith properly:

“When are you gonna be done here?”

Keith’s eyes lazily looked up from Lance’s face to the clock on the wall behind him.

“I’m here for another thirty minutes.” He answered.

“Okay. Cool.” Lance pushed himself of the counter he was leaning to,catching Keith’s eyes in the process. “I’ll drop by the school and get the equipment-“

“Wait, what equipment? Are you really this impatient to take landscape photos?” Keith straightened his posture, one eyebrow raised up high.

Lance was already walking backwards towards the door. He hit his watch lightly with his pointer finger multiple times. “Time is ticking away, Kogane. We have assignments to do. I’ll meet you back in front of the shop in thirty mins.”

And with that he was out of the door, leaving Keith to pout and blow air irritably from his nose.

 

Still, thirty minutes later he was waiting for Lance with hands in his pockets. The taller boy appeared as he turned a corner with long, hasty steps. His backpack looked fuller than it was before and he had a smaller bag –one used for cameras- hanging from his shoulder. What surprised Keith was none of these though. Lance had two paper cups of steaming hot beverages. Maybe he was a nice guy.

“Hey,” he said when he reached Keith. He handed one of the cups to him. “I don’t know your favorite coffee, Shiro didn’t tell me that. So i guessed? Filter coffee? You look like a boring person like that.” Maybe he was not a nice guy.

Keith took the coffee nevertheless. “Actually i prefer tea, you’re the boring one here.” He brought the cup to his lips as they both started walking side by side. He watched Lance scoff from the side of his eye.

“Yeah, you wish. I’m the most interesting person in the universe!” Lance exclaimed.

“We’ll see about that.” Keith replied with a smirk of his own. Lance gasped slightly before raising both eyebrows playfully. Oh, it is on.

“So where are we off to for your lesson? You're in charge.” Lance said, taking a sip of his coffee. Keith struggled a little bit to keep up to his pace, Lance’s legs were so long, it gave him a big advantage. 

‘ _That must be how he won last night_ ’ Keith thought.

“Shockingly,” Keith said, pausing for a moment to take a large sip from his cup. “I didn’t have anything planned. Almost as if I wasn't expecting you” the sarcasm was practically dripping off his words and he felt a smile tug on the corner of his lips. Conversation with Lance was fun, they bounced off each other perfectly. 

“Oh c’mon Keithhh~” Lance whined, stepping in front of him and stopping Keith in his tracks. “You have to know somewhere we can go. Preferably not far, this stuff is extremely heavy.” 

Keith sighed a little and finished his drink, tossing it into a nearby garbage can. He did know a place. His favourite place, actually. He spent quite a lot of his time up there. It was hard to come back without a good shot. 

“Okay, maybe I know a place” he gave in, sticking his hands into the warmth of his jacket. It was getting colder by the day and he hated it. Keith was not a winter person. “Outside the city, it overlooks the landscape, you’ll get some really great shots and-“

“Awesome! Great!” Lance interrupted, grabbing Keith by the arm and pulling him ahead, a big grin on his face. Keith’s cheeks changed to a slight shade of pink, here Lance was, casually touching him again. He was so...nonchalant. He looked up at Lance’s smile and couldn’t help but smile a bit himself. Lance walked quickly before slowly coming to a stop. People raced around them, giving them a couple dirty looks. He turned to give Keith a sheepish look, “I don’t know where we’re going” he admitted.

Keith rolled his eyes and walked straight ahead. “Follow me” he said, holding back a laugh.

 

 

“Are we almost there?” Lance asked for the millionth time. He was treading behind Keith now, his energy was quickly absorbed after 20 minutes of walking. 

Keith turned into a parking lot and motioned for Lance to follow. “We’re here” he said, walking through the cars. The sun had almost set completely, leaving the sky a dark ashy colour. Keith loved twilight, he got the coolest photos. He knows everyone is crazy about the golden hour, and he had to admit you could get some incredible shots, but twilight was underrated. 

“I- uh, this isn’t what I was expecting buddy” Lance murmured, looking around. “Like...at all. I was picturing something more like- wait is that yours?!” Lance was at his side in a second, watching as Keith unlocked the doors and hopped into the passenger seat. 

Keith smirked up at lance from his seat, “You’re talking like it’s a mustang or something. Yes Lance, this beaten down piece of crap is mine.” 

“A car’s a car!” Lance explained, rushing over to the over side and putting his stuff in the back, before jumping into the passenger side. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a car? This is so useful.” He pulled his seatbelt on and immediately started going through some of Keith’s tapes. 

“Well you never asked” he replied, putting his own belt on before carefully pulling out of the lot. He had a sinking feeling that Lance was going to be an awful driving buddy. 

Lance leaned forward and switched the radio on, he played around with the station until one caught his eye, “oh!” He exclaimed “I love this song!” He sat back with a plop and started to hum along. Keith was so tempted to look over at him but he knew if he did, he probably wouldn’t look away for a while. So he kept his eyes focused on the road. It wasn’t too far ahead. 

_“Something in the air is giving me bad ideas~_ ” Lance sang, tapping his feet.

_“Oh god”_ Keith thought, tightening his grip on the wheel. _“He’s going to kill me”_ Lance’s voice was clear and...perfect. And those lyrics, Keith was trying his best to not to pay attention to them. He sighed in relief when he saw his turn, they were only seconds away now. He pulled up a dirty lane and shifted gears to handle the climb. He pulled up to the top of the hill and went to turn the car off. 

“Wait!” Lance said, grabbing Keith’s hand to stop him. “Let’s keep it on so we can listen while we work. It’ll be nice, just like the studio” 

Keith wanted to protest, he really did. He preferred the silence of the night, the sincerity that came with it. Sometimes, if it was quiet enough, he swore he could hear the stars. But something in Lance’s face made him slightly weak.

“Alright, fine” Keith undid his seatbelt and opened his door “if it makes you more comfortable, then great. That’s the whole point right? To get you some photos?” He stepped out of the car and stretched, taking a deep breath. He loved the air up here. 

He went to help lance with the equipment when it hit him. Lance was the first person he’d shown this place too. Not even Shiro had been up here yet. But that didn’t mean anything right? This was for school. For a grade. _He’d probably never see Lance again after this was all over_. 

He felt his heart sink slightly. Never see Lance again...he didn’t like that. But he didn’t really have control over it, he couldn’t force Lance to be his friend after this. A big part of him didn’t want to get better at portraits, just so that Lance would continue to help him. Just so he could keep seeing him smile and laugh, so he could keep teasing him and making jokes. He hasn’t felt this connected in a long time. 

“-You okay there Keith?” Lance’s voice rang out, he was standing by a picnic table with the bags of equipment laid out in front of him. 

“Uuuh…” Keith gulped. “Yeah, just tired.” Lance’s gaze lingered on him then. As if by looking intently he could see what kept Keith up at night.

“O-kay…” He sort of sang. “Where do we start?” He opened his backpack and took out a tripod and large Nikon camera, he had brought wide angle lense with him. 

_‘He did his research_ ’ Keith thought. 

“First, look around you through the camera’s visor. Think what you can possibly do with the scenery.” Keith felt awkward, he didn’t like explaining things. This was especially hard because it came nearly as a second nature to him. He just felt and took the shots. “If you want to capture the stars too, take two separate photos. One of the city and a one with a low aperture of the sky. Then we’ll just merge them together in photoshop.”

Doing as he told, Lance still kept on talking. “That’s pretty smart Keithy boy. Hey! Let’s play 20 questions!” He looked away from the view to flash an excited grin at Keith. 

“What’s that?” Keith asked. “No wait, wild guess, we’re gonna ask each other questions?” 

Lance’s first snort blossomed into a full laugh, one that shook his shoulders and lit up his face. One that set butterflies free in Keith’s stomach. Oh no… 

“Yes, but we’re gonna take turns.” Lance finally answered as he took a picture. He frowned looking at the picture but his mouth was still working. It seemed impossible for Lance to be quiet. “I’ll go first, favorite type of tea?” 

Keith watched as Lance turned his torso slightly to change his angle. “Any black tea with honey is okay.”

“So basically earl gray. And _you_ call _me_ boring.” He snorted. 

“Shut up,” Keith found himself giggling. Usually no one get his playful teasings or bothered to reply with the same manner. Or worse, some people didn’t get his sarcasm. Lance got all of it. “My turn: Why do you hate silence so much?”

“It’s uncomfortable man, just straight up unnerving. I have no idea how people do that, honestly.” Lance replied after a heartbeat of silence and the small sound of him taking another picture. Keith moved closer to Lance, taking out his own camera to be able to be more help.

“Favourite camera?” Lance retorted, fiddling with his shutter speed. 

“Pentax Me Super” Keith blurted without thinking. He was immediately transported back to that day in his dad office, when he found the old camera in that dirty cardboard box. His dad’s camera.

“Uh, that’s random. I mean out of all the vintage cameras, that’s really not the best” Lance pulled away from the camera and started to adjust the white balance. 

“Um. My dad had one. My birth dad. I lost it though, through foster homes. I lost most of my stuff.” Keith felt awkward telling Lance about all this, but also slightly relieved. He felt a small ball of anxiety start to chur in his stomach. What would Lance say back? What kind of questions would he ask? 

“Day or night?” He heard Lance murmur next to him.

He didn’t skip a beat: “Night.”

“Edgy.” Came the answer. 

He breathed a sigh of relief. This was why he liked talking with Lance, he knew how to keep things going. 

The music from the car turned to something softer that Keith didn’t recognize, but he had to admit, he kind of liked it. 

Keith lowered his camera to look at Lance. “Why do you only paint your thumb nail?” This time, Lance actually took time to answer. The silence grew even longer, causing Keith to worry.

“If it’s something sensitive y-“ Lance cut him with a strict tone on his voice: “It’s to remember someone important to me.” 

Keith tore his eyes away from the radiant boy to look at the flickering city lights, the soft gradient the sky was portraying and the top of some trees looking like they solely were holding the city up.

“Question: Why are you not helping me?” The lightness was back into Lance’s voice making it smooth and sweet.

Keith snapped back to reality then. “Lower your camera.” 

“Huh?” Surprised, Lance peeked at him over his camera he still held in his face’s level.

“Look at the view. What is the most distinctive thing for you in it?” Keith asked.

Keith’s imagination ran free for a second, dreaming Lance answering _“You.”_ Obviously, that was not the case. Lance wouldn’t say anything like that, considering how weird he reacted to Keith being gay.

“The lights? I guess?” For the first time that evening, Lance sounded unsure. 

“Then find an angle, or a composition to make the lights stand out.” Keith instructed. Lance seemed to be getting what he was talking about because he experimentally moved around.

“How do I know that it’ll turn out okay? Will it even turn out okay? Stupid landscapes, I knew it was-“ 

Keith touched Lance’s arm lightly then. If he had limited time with Lance, he could allow himself to be selfish once. 

“Lance, shut up and please just take the picture.” 

A trade of some questions and the taking of some pretty good shots made Lance grinned ear to ear again.

“Question, can you give me ride back home?”


End file.
